A'Camping We Will Go
by szanto
Summary: The main cast from Big Bang Theory goes camping and comes into grave danger. Warning, there will be some very scary situations and it might trigger. There will be in depth information on what it is like to be in the middle of a wildfire. I don't own these characters.
1. Chapter 1

"Shelly! Shelly, honey, it's Momma. I'm gonna need you to pick up the phone. I'm scared. The News said that there is a fire there in the woods close to where ya'll are camping. Honey, Call me as soon as you get this message! I MEAN IT!

Mary Cooper disconnected the phone call and stared at her television set in abject horror. The news is saying that the fire is moving faster than they have ever seen. The last time Mary had spoken to her son was the day before. Shelly had called to check in and tell her that their vacation was going really well so far. He had also told her that he was glad she had guilted him into taking a vacation with Amy. Even though everyone was along on the trip, he and Amy had still managed to have some quality alone time and Amy was over the moon happy. Mary had told him, "See Shelly! A happy wife means a happy life! It's not always about you, Son." He had snorted at that and told her of course it was all about him. Making Amy happy made HIS life better, so see.. about him! Sheldon had told her about the drive up to northern California and how they had stopped in Sacramento to eat at a lovely bistro before they got into the campground between Concow and Paradise. He told her that wasn't really accurate, as a campground that he was used to was lots where you parked a camper or pitched your tent. This place was rental cabins. Forty of them, to be exact, not really a "camp out" according to Sheldon. Especially since the cabins were rigged up with lights and running water.

When Mary asked Sheldon if this were a bad thing, his reply was along the lines of "Certainly not! I have to be able to use my laptop and if Leonard and Penny can't charge their phones, it would be the death of them!" They had finished up their conversation and ended the call with Mary telling her son she loved him, and he returned the sentiment. Now Mary was afraid it might be their last conversation.

She hit her knees sobbing and started praying to God, begging him for mercy and the safety of her Shelly.

Mary stayed in that position, constantly praying and hoping for quite a while. She honestly wasn't sure how much time had passed before she was jolted back to herself as her cellphone sprang to life in her hand. She didn't even register the caller id on the phone screen, she just pushed answer then jerked the device to her face yelling "Shelly! Is that you?"

"No, Mom. It's Missy. What's wrong?"

Mary all but screamed in frustration and pain "Haven't you been watching the news! There's a wildfire in California!"

"Mom, there's always a wildfire in California. What's that got to do with Sheldon?

24 Hours Earlier

Leonard Hofstadter was not a happy camper, pun very much intended. He had come on this trip to spend time with his wife, Penny. So far that hadn't happened. She, along with Amy and Bernadette, had gone hiking, swimming, run down into the village to get their nails done at that "cute boutique," and anything else they wanted. Leaving him and his friends to their own devices. He normally wouldn't mind, but he thought the point was to get away from their normal routine and spend some time together.

They were along on this trip with their best friends, Sheldon Cooper, and his wife, Amy, Howard Wolowitz and his wife Bernadette, and Raj Koothrapali. The seven of them did nearly everything together and this trip was no different.

Sheldon had come home in August with an invitation to visit Dr. Wolcott at his new campground for a weeks vacation. The guys had all been Dr. Walcott's guest at his cabin closer to home a few years ago and the doctor had invited the whole crew up to enjoy his new cabin community for free for the week. After much debate, and conning Stewart into staying home with the Wolowitz children, the decision was made and the group decided to go up in early November, before everyone went their own way for the holidays.

The original plan was to drive up after work on the previous Friday, November 2nd, but Leonard and Sheldon got caught working on a last minute project with the ever irritating Barry Kripke. They wound up working late into the evening, due to Kripke being Kripke, and the group didn't get to depart until around 9:30 Saturday morning. It is a seven and a half hour drive, non stop, but, given Leonard's bladder issues, it took closer to 12 hours before the group wound up stopping for dinner in Sacramento. By the time they got to the cabins, everyone in the group was exhausted and crabby.

The Camp Ground was absolutely stunning, even in the moonlight. Set deep in the lush forest between Concow and Paradise, the cabins were cute log cabin designs, that had covered porches, complete with rocking chairs. The cabins were set in two semi-circles of ten, the first ten cabins closer in together, and the second set of ten further back and further apart. The paths between all the cabins were gravel and they led from each porch all the way around to the center of the closer simi-circle. The center was a circle made of stone, with brightly colored adirondack chairs positioned all the way around the stone circle. The middle of the circle had a fire pit, dipping deep into a pit formed low beneath the river stones forming the circle. Even with the pit being dug in the earth, there was still a sign posted that because of Fire Danger, there would be no camp fire stories as mentioned in the brochure and that the management apologized. It was pretty dark, since it was so late in the evening, but every porch had a light on, and the cabins had names on the doors in pretty laminated signs.

The first cabin in the inner circle was marked as "Dr. and Dr. Fowler-Cooper". Sheldon and Amy said good night to their friends and stepped into their cabin. The room they stepped into was cozy with a thick comfy overstuffed blue couch and matching arm chairs. There were oak end tables and a matching coffee table. The log ladder into the loft was cedar. The walls were adorned with hand crafted quilts, and framed cross stitch pieces depicting local wild life. Immediately, Amy was in love with the decor, telling her husband that it reminded her of visiting her grandparents when she was a child. Climbing into the loft, they discovered a double bed on an ancient iron frame painted white. There was a small night stand on either side, also painted white, an white chest of drawers along the wall at the foot of the bed, and a not so spacious, but very functional bathroom off to the left of the bedroom. Again, upon discovering the clawfoot tub, Amy was in heaven! Upon inspecting each other's cabins later, the group would come to realize all the cabins were identical, save for the color scheam. Blue, and blue plaids throughout the Cooper cabin, while the Hofstadter's had green and green plaid, the Wolowitz's had red and red plaid, and Raj and his trusty sidekick, Cinnamon, had yellow and yellow plaid.

After Sheldon and Amy enter their cabin, the group follows the simi-circle around to the next cabin which is designated for Raj. He makes his good evenings to the group and takes Cinnamon inside. He is so exhausted, he takes little notice of his surroundings. He just falls out on the couch and is asleep in minutes.

The next cabin is for the Wolowitz's. They take their leave of Penny and Leonard and head inside, hand in hand. They too, take little notice at first of their surroundings, as this is the first night they would have completely alone since before their daughter, Haylee, was born. They leave their bags on the couch and head up the ladder to the bedroom, Bernadette going first, and giggling as Howard grabs her rear from below.

Finally, Penny and Leonard get to their cabin. The walk in and take in the view. Penny immediately walks to the back of the cabin into the kitchen nook and starts poking around.

"Hey look! This place is fully stocked. OOOH! Leonard! They have wine!"

"You can't seriously be hungry. We just ate." Leonard tells his wife.

"Well, maybe I'm not looking to eat, now that I found the vino!" She replies. "But then, maybe I will skip the wine. Oooh.. they have pizza in the freezer. Want to split a DiGiorno with me?"

"No thanks. I'm still full, but you enjoy! Maybe afterwards, we can... you know..."

"Ugh.. Leonard.. You always want to you know. We JUST got here. Let's settle in! Hey, pull out the laptop. We can watch a movie while my pizza is cooking! NetFlix has a "Steel Magnolias" special where you get to see outtakes and interviews with the cast."

Leonard inwardly groaned. "Sure, hon. That sounds great." He went about unpacking their electronics while Penny baked her pizza. They didn't make it all the way through the movie before Penny was passed out on the couch and snoring. There was no way Leonard would be able to carry Penny up the ladder, so he left her on the couch and went up to bed.

The next morning, the girls left the boys and Cinnamon to their own devices and started a trend that would follow through the rest of the vacation so far. They would set out early in the day and go shopping in nearby Paradise, get their nails or hair done, eat in town, and come back to the cabins after about 2 pm. Then Amy and Bernie would take Sheldon and Howard to go do coupley private things. Penny would flop down on the couch in their cabin with her phone and ignore him.

Wednesday evening rolled around and Penny had been out on a hike with Amy for most of the day. The boys had gone "old school" and left the computers alone for the morning, opting to play a rousing game of Magic the Gathering in Raj's cabin. Bernadette had decided that she wanted to learn the game, and opted to stay behind and hang out with the guys, so the game took far longer than usual, with Howard coaching his wife as well as paying attention to his own deck. Amy and Penny returned about 4 pm, and volunteered to make dinner for everyone since they were all still very involved with the game. About six, everyone left Raj's and went to their own cabins. When they got to their cabin, Penny curled up in her favorite spot on the couch and pulled out her phone to check her facebook account. Leonard went into the kitchen and poured himself a soda and asked his wife if she wanted some wine. She declined, and Leonard found that weird.

"Since when do you turn down wine?" he jokingly asked.

"I just don't want any, ok?" she replied slightly defensively.

Leonard shruged it off, and sat down in the arm chair and pulled out his laptop. The more he thought about it, the weirder he found Penny's behavior the last few days. He decided to broach the subject and see what was happening.

"Penny?" Leonard started shyly.

"Hmmmm" Penny replied, while reading an article on her phone.

"Can you put the phone down a minute?"

"Just a minute, this is really interesting. I want to finish the article."

"Penny.."

"Dang, Leonard! Can't you let me relax? I'm supposed to be on vacation!" Penny gets up and storms off, leaving Leonard to wonder what is wrong with his wife and question what is going on in their marriage.

Penny stayed gone until well past bedtime. When she got in she didn't even offer an explanation and goes straight to bed. Leonard gave up the hope for honest communication for the evening and went to bed. He didn't even try to talk to Penny as he slipped into bed.

Raj spent the evening cleaning the cabin after everyone had been there all day. A little after 11, Cinnamon decided that she needed to go out, and Raj got up to oblige her. Figuring it was late and she wouldn't be out long, he neglected to put her on a leash. He trusted that she would come when called, and so wasn't worried. Raj opened the door, and Cinnamon scooted out the door. He stepped back inside the door to grab his phone, and when he turned around again, Cinnamon was nowhere in sight. Worried and a little irritated, Raj took off into the woods calling her name.

Sheldon and Amy had turned in as soon as they returned to their cabin. They had decided, even though they hadn't told their friends, that they should start trying for a child. They had spent all of their alone time on this trip working toward that objective. The couple were fast asleep by midnight.

Meanwhile, in another cabin, Howard and Bernadette Wolowitz were enjoying the alone time that they have rarely had since the children arrived. Even though Howard isn't necessarily an outdoors man, Bernie was really turned on by how much he had enjoyed being outside with her during this trip. Howard suggested they put on their PJ's and take a midnight stroll with their sleeping bags. Earlier they had found a lovely little clearing and both were dying to try it out as a secluded lovemaking spot as neither had ever done that outside. Bernie agreed and the couple took off down the trail, hand in hand with only a sleeping bag and a bottle of wine.

Bernie woke up a little after six on Thursday morning because the wine went to her bladder and she needed to relieve herself. As she slid out of the sleeping bag trying not to wake Howard, she noted a faint smell of smoke on the air. After sliding into her clothes, and doing her business, she went back to their camping spot and woke Howard.

"Howie. Howie, wake up. something isn't right."

Howard came awake at the sound of Bernadette's voice. He could hear the worry in her tone and was instantly awake.

"Howie, I smell smoke and I hear crackling. I think we are all in danger, and we need to get back and get everyone and get out of here!" She threw Howard's clothes at him and he was up and dressed in a shot. By the time they started back up the trail towards the cabins the smoke was much more pungent, and the crackling was growing very loud. They started hurrying even faster back up the trail.


	2. Chapter 2

3:30 AM

Penny was awake and restless. She had been awake when Leonard slipped into bed but hadn't said anything. He hadn't either so she just let it go. She had so much to tell him, but hadn't wanted to ruin their vacation so had stayed quiet about what was bothering her. She apparently had managed to ruin the vacation anyway so she might as well talk to him. She took a deep breath and it sounded like a hurricane in the quiet dark room.

"Leonard? Are you awake?"

"No" He mumbled into the pillow. "What's up?"

"I feel bad about earlier."

"Yeah? You should." Leonard sat up and reached for his glasses on the night stand. "What is going on with you? You have been grouchy and distant since we got here."

Penny took a deep breath. "I don't mean to be. I just have a lot going on and it is a lot to process."

He shot her a look filled with annoyance. "Hey, what kind of stuff are you trying to process that you don't talk to me about it? We are supposed to be a team. I can't help if you shut me out."

"That's just it, Leonard. You are part of what I am dealing with. Your feelings. I don't want to hurt you."  
"Don't want to hurt me? Penny, what is going on here?" Leonard did not realize that he had raised his voice.

Penny shrunk back for a moment. "Leonard, I can't talk to you if you are yelling at me. This is hard enough." Her eyes filled with tears. She stepped out of bed and started getting dressed.

"I didnt mean to yell. I am just confused here. Where are you going?"

"I need to talk to you about what is happening but I obviously haven't figured out the right way to start, so I am going to go for a drive and clear my head. Go back to sleep. I will be back in just a little bit." Penny replied, and with that, slipped down the ladder to the living room and out the door.

Penny was really glad that everyone had brought their own cars on this trip. There had been a huge debate back at home about the best way for everyone to travel. Bernadette, Howard, Amy and Raj had all wanted to rent one big van or bus and have everyone in the same vehicle. Everyone else wanted to take individual vehicles so that if they wanted to split off and do things seperately it wouldnt be a big deal. After arguing amoungst each other for a week and a wierd Star Trek trivia game to decide a tie (don't ask) it was finally agreed that everyone would take their own vehicles.

It occured to Penny that even though they didn't carpool, the only time anyone had broken off was when she, Amy and Bernadette had drove into Paradise those times. The couples hadn't take cars to go do things by themselves! Kinda funny, if you think about it, but right now, Penny was greatful that she didn't have to go hunting somene else's keys to go for a drive.

By the time she was driving into Paradise, it was a little after five. She found the town to be a little sleepy and didn't expect anything to be open just yet, so she was mildly surprised to see the K Mart open. She wondered if they had a Starbucks or something like Target did these days, so she swung into the parking lot and turned off the car. Making her way into the 24 hour store, she snorted to herself. She wasn't a K Mart kinda girl, but hey, it was cheap entertainment at this unGodly hour of the morning, and a welcome distraction to her current problems.

How did she talk to her husband about this stuff? Especially since she has hidden it for weeks now? Leonard would be furious and hurt but she had to tell him. She knew that now. She grabbed a basket and started wandering the aisles looking at clothes and shoes while further contemplating her perdicament.

Back at the cabin, Leonard had given up on sleeping by five am. He hadn't been able to sleep all night long, so why start now? He put on a pair of well worn jeans and his favorite Batman t-shirt and his sneekers and climbed down the ladder and headed for the kitchen. Examining the contents of the refridgerator, Leonard decided to make bacon, eggs, and pancakes. He went about gathering the ingredients he would need while lost in thought. What in the world was going on? Had Penny cheated on him? Was she going to leave him? What would happen if they divorced? He didn't want a divorce! He wanted his wife to be honest with him.

"I'm such a chump!" He said outloud to himself. "She drops a bomb about not wanting to hurt me and needs to drive around and clear her head, and I'm over here making her a damn feast. Waiting like a kicked puppy for her to come back through the door!"

It was 5 am in the Cooper Cabin, a few doors down. Amy had slipped out of bed and also decided to go about making breakfast. She was pretty sure last night was the one. She and Sheldon had been trying for several months to get pregnant, and she just felt different this morning. Amy felt like the weght of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had accomplished their goal.

In celebration, Amy was making Tex-Mex breakfast burritos for Sheldon. He walked in the kitchen just as she finished adding eggs to the sauteed peppers and onions. Fried potatoes were on the back burner waiting to be added to soft tortillas with the egg mixture, cheese, and bacon.

"Oooh! You do love me! What is the occasion for you to make my mother's breakfast burritos for me? Sheldon asked as he gave Amy a prim peck on the cheek.

"Sheldon, we did it. Last night was the night."

"Did what, Amy? And yes, last night was pretty wonderful!" Sheldon said, distracted as he stole a piece of bacon from the pile.

"No, I mean we made the baby last night. I just know it!" Amy said as she smacked his hand for the bacon theft.

"Now Amy, there is no way you can know that yet." Sheldon said, condecention evident in his voice. "I mean, we just finished a few hours ago. You shouldn't get your hopes up."

"Sometimes, Sheldon, a woman just knows. So we will see. In a few weeks, I am going to pee on a stick and prove you wrong. We, sir, have a bun in the oven, so pour us some juice and let me make these dang burritos!"

They sat down to eat their breakfast. Moments after Sheldon poked the last of his breakfast into his mouth, he and Amy were startled as someone started beating on their front door.

"Goodness! I wonder who that could be before 6:30 in the morning!" Amy exclaimed. She hopped up from her chair and hurried to the front door, as Sheldon washed the rest of his food down with the end of his juice. He followed behind Amy and got to the door just as Professor Wolcott rushed in.

"We have to go. We have to get to the shelter! Hurry!" He exclaimed, out of breath.

"Professor! It is nice of you to come by, but Amy and I aren't dressed for company!" Sheldon said.

"Dr. Cooper! You aren't listening. We are in grave danger. We have to go. NOW!"


End file.
